It Happens Everytime
by HAFanForever
Summary: Based on the song by Dream Street, Helga reflects on her relationship with Arnold, both the past and present. My first ArnoldxHelga song fic with my favorite song from Dream Street. Post TJM. A birthday present for my buddy Maria (KasuKAPL). :)


**Hello everybody! Today I have something different for you from me. You all know I love ArnoldxHelga, and I'll tell you that also really love music, though I have too many favorite songs to name. :( I wrote this first song fic of mine based on my favorite song from the old boy band Dream Street, "It Happens Everytime." It's through Helga's POV, talking about her relationship with Arnold, from the moment she met him to their current relationship after TJM. (If you listen to the song, I'm sure you'd think it fits the couple very well. ;))**

**I drew up the idea from Cassandra's (NintendoGal55) fic "Oops, I Did It Again," but some of the lines in this were also inspired by lines in some of her other fics, including "Arnold's Leg," "I'm in Love," and "Ignoring." So thanks a lot, buddy!**

**And it was even inspired by some our fic together, "Young Love," which included written dialogue of limey's comic series **_**Tying Up Loose Ends**_**, which **_**also**_** helped with this, along with one of her other works, **_**a plus h**_**. So thank you, limey, for making awesome art! :D**

**A little more inspiration for it came from Jade (Jadeykins) since she made a music vid for me on YouTube with this very song and couple. :) So I'd like to dedicate this to you, buddy!**

**Last but not least, I'd also like to dedicate this fic to Maria (KasuKAPL), as this is my birthday gift to her! :D Happy birthday, Maria! I hope you like this, buddy!**

* * *

It all started on my first day of preschool.

I was all ready to go, yet my parents were fawning over Olga the way they always did. They didn't seem to acknowledge me at all. I became tired of waiting, so I decided I was going to preschool, even if I had to go by myself.

I walked through the streets alone. It was raining, and I had no coat or umbrella to shield me. I approached some scary-looking people in the street. At a crosswalk, I got splashed with mud. I pressed forward, but a big, mean stray dog suddenly appeared and grabbed the handle of my lunchbox. I held on as tight as I could, but it was to no avail. The dog overpowered me and managed to steal it.

Soon I arrived outside the doors of the preschool. I was just about ready to cry, wondering what had I done to deserve such a terrible life at home, being ignored and neglected by everyone around me. Even when my family did notice me, it was never for any good attention. That kind of attention always went to _Olga_. I was just about to ask myself how this day could get any worse, when suddenly…

I noticed a shadow looming over my head and looked up at the umbrella that was covering me from the rain. Then I looked at the boy who was holding it. He was wearing a yellow rain coat and I took notice of his unusual oblong-shaped head with spikey, unruly blonde hair, along with the little blue hat located in the center of his head.

"Hi, nice bow," he said to me.

"Huh?" I asked, not expecting him to say anything to me at all.

"I like your bow, 'cause it's pink like your pants." He closed his umbrella, then walked through the doors. I touched the pink bow that was on top of my head, then I smiled to myself. I looked through the window and saw the boy hanging up his coat. He had his back to me, so I took this chance to stare at him through the window, then I out a lovesick swoon.

That was the moment that my life changed forever. That was the day I met Arnold, my football-headed love god, my better half, my now-boyfriend, my one and only love, and (hopefully someday) my future husband.

_Can you hear the music playing?  
Can you feel the rhythm swaying?  
This is the sound of dreams come true  
And I can promise you that…_

Arnold was really the first person in my life who had really noticed me or shown me any sort of kindness or understanding. All on our first day of preschool, he was nice to me. He tried to keep me dry with his umbrella, he complimented me on my bow (giving it sentimental value to me, which is why I still wear it today), and he even gave me his graham crackers after Harold stole mine.

No one had ever shown me any sort of kindness the way Arnold did. Even after I became a bully, my love for him never went away. It only grew stronger with each second, minute, hour, day, week, and month of each year. And as that time passed, I had more reasons to love him other than just because he was the first person to actually notice me or be nice to me.

Arnold grew into a mature, reasonable, and level-headed boy, and was well-known for being a peacemaker and helper in our neighborhood. Doing the right thing, looking on the bright side, seeing the best in everyone, helping people, giving great advice, and listening were what Arnold always did. His high levels of patience, trust, kindness, generosity, confidence, and understanding were everything that helped intensify my love for him. He was almost a dream come true, maybe even too good to be true. He was very likely to continue doing good deeds and maintain a good attitude for the rest of his life, and I hoped he would never change. He had so many good qualities, but even with the flaws he did have, he was the very definition of perfection.

Arnold, to me, was an ideal boy, a perfect boyfriend, the kind of boy every girl would want.

And yet, he actually had little to no luck with girls. I thought that they were all idiots for not realizing what kind of person he was or wanting to give him a chance, namely _Lila_, a.k.a. Little Miss Perfect.

My conscience has often told me, "You're only nine, and it's too early to decide who's the perfect boy for you. What you feel for Arnold is just a silly little crush. You still have an entire lifetime ahead of you. You will find someone else in the future who will love you just as much as you love him."

Well, in your dreams, conscience!

As my love for Arnold grew over the years, I knew that he was the perfect boy for me, and I never wanted anyone but him for as long as I lived. His good qualities and even his flaws could give me just what I needed. I needed him and his idealistic attitude. He could give me everything my family couldn't or didn't give me. If I had never met him, or even loved him…

Yes, even though I am mature for my age as well, I know I still have a lot of growing up to do. But I felt that I could never change my mind about Arnold. I could never love anyone else as strongly and no other girl could ever love Arnold the way I love him.

And at the same time, I grew to realize that, besides knowing that no girl could love Arnold as much as I did, I realized that I was just as perfect for him. Even though he was very optimistic and positive, he sometimes went overboard with it, and I could help him be more realistic. I knew I could bring out my aggression best if Arnold had his head in the clouds too much and needed to be more assertive.

_You are the one and only  
And I'm the lost and lonely  
We are the perfect dream come true  
And I can promise you that  
I hear a silly love song in my heart_

Anyway, whenever I was around Arnold, I felt at peace with myself. Seeing him everyday, even for a brief moment, really helped me get through a rough morning at home or a hard day at school. Even though he didn't know I loved him, he gave me strength, hope, and inspiration like no one else did. And except for Phoebe, when there were times I dealt with problems in my family, Arnold always somehow managed to pop up, so I told him what was going on, and he listened to me and offered advice.

I knew that was a big reason why he was the perfect boy for me. No one listened to me and gave advice, understanding, and encouragement to me the way Arnold did. Talking about the problems did make me feel better, which is why I loved Arnold even more than I did then the moment before I talked about my problems.

Besides seeing Arnold, any time we were in the physical presence of each other was a dream come true for me. There were times we crashed into each other and I often exclaimed his name out of shock and happiness. Other times he would touch me, often when I fell down and he was concerned about me. When I was alone following an event like that, I'd swoon to myself on how my beloved actually touched me.

Some of the better times occurred when he _hugged_ me, and as far as I know, he never hugged another girl before!

The first time occurred because he was happy that I found his hat (after I searched for it for hours at the dump!), then the second time occurred because he was happy that I got my dad to sponsor his float for the city parade. But the third time was completely out of the blue. He arrived at our baseball field the morning he was supposed to be visiting his lame-o cousin Arnie, and the first thing he took in was how happy he seemed to see me, so he hugged me.

You can imagine how confused yet overjoyed I was that my football-headed hero was hugging me again!

When I had a moment alone, I went behind the scoreboard and let out a lovesick swoon after looking at my locket. From my point of view, it was like Arnold had a dream that I was gone and actually missed me, so seeing him unexpectedly that morning made it great, but the hug was a bonus for me!

_It happens every time when I see you  
It happens every time when I think of you  
It happens every time  
Oh, it's magic when we meet  
Baby, down on Dream Street_

Because I loved Arnold the way I did, I was curious what it would be like if we ever kissed, and yes, I mean on the lips. I know very few girls, especially at my age, would actually want to go that far when they liked a boy, but I always thought that I was bolder than all of the other girls in my class. I have kissed his picture in my locket many times, and I even kissed the likeness of Arnold I made from his chewed gum, though my lips got stuck on it!

I finally got my chance to kiss Arnold for the first time when I heard he was playing Romeo in our school play. I initially didn't want to audition, but I became determined to snatch the role of Juliet when I heard that whoever played Juliet would have to kiss the boy playing Romeo, and you can be sure I didn't want any of the other girls to have to kiss Arnold, especially Lila!

I managed to manipulate Rhonda, Sheena, and Phoebe to drop out, though I told Lila my secret, much to my great reluctance, so she would give me the part. So scoring the role wasn't easy, and I only had the night before the play to learn my lines, but in the end, it was worth it.

Kissing Arnold for the first time, well,…there are too many words to explain just how wonderful it was!

Even though he was pretending to be dead and the kiss was one-sided, I didn't care. It was just another dream come true: to be sharing my first kiss with Arnold, my beloved, my football-headed love god.

I took advantage of this opportunity by kissing him for a full minute, using happiness since we were sharing our first kiss at long last, but also in a little bit of sorrow because I was unsure if we would ever get to do it again.

Luckily, karma presented me with the opportunity to kiss Arnold two more times after that, and they all felt better than the last kiss.

_Let me take you by the hand and  
Walk you down the Milky Way 'cause  
You make me feel I'm so alive  
Oh, I promise baby  
I hear a silly love song in my heart_

We shared our second kiss at the beach during filming of an episode of _Babewatch_. We had this opportunity after we won a sand castle competition together. While I supposed to be playing a lifeguard and giving him mouth-to-mouth, I, again, used this opportunity to put my lips over his own perfect ones and kiss him (even though it was one-sided again and it looked more like I was kissing him more than giving him resuscitation).

The third kiss happened like I never thought it would, and it's not just because it was spontaneous and unscripted unlike the first two times.

Before that time, Arnold was determined to save our neighborhood from being destroyed and turned into a giant mall by Scheck of Future Tech Industries (FTi). Though this was an opportunity for my family to get rich off the deal and the offer was very tempting, I couldn't bear the thought of never seeing Arnold again, so I decided that I would rather help him. Through a series of events, Arnold caught me helping him and demanded to know why I did it. Though I knew I was trapped, I couldn't take it anymore, and I confessed in a passionate outburst to Arnold that I loved him! Now that he knew the truth, I decided to prove it to him, so I grabbed him and kissed him with all the longing, force, and passion I had for him, hoping that would convince that this was no lie!

_It happens every time when I see you  
It happens every time when I think of you  
It happens every time  
Oh, it's magic when we meet  
Baby, down on Dream Street_

When we finally broke apart, Arnold said he was confused after all I said and did, so I shook him in anger, then I tried to kiss him again. I started talking to him in a sweet tone of voice, trying to be romantic to him in hopes of winning him over. He said he needed to lie down, so I offered to go with him, all the while I gave him a tender, loving gaze and held him gently.

However, we had to get back to the neighborhood and couldn't talk right then. After everything later, we were both too embarrassed to talk about it and agreed that it was just in "the heat of the moment."

Now initially, I was little disappointed since he didn't say he loved me back, but I guess I should have known better. After all that happened, what with giving up my own material gain just to help him, along with the fact that I had teased him and claimed to hate him for years, reciprocating my feelings right away would have been too impulsive of him. He said earlier that he wanted to think about it, so that told me that he didn't have the immediate answer of rejecting me or even liking me back. Our agreement involved him giving me back my dignity and giving him the time to think about his feelings. I wanted to pretend like I lied to him about it all, but I knew that he really knew the truth about my feelings for him, and that there was no going back.

So in a way, I was happy after all that happened because he didn't give me a flat-out rejection like I initially feared, and that gave me hope for the chance that he would someday say yes.

A few months later, I finally got my answer, and, yes, it was sealed with a kiss from Arnold!

_It happens every time (Baby)  
It happens every time  
Oh, it's magic when we meet_

It all related to a case of repeated history when Arnold and I and our class took a trip down to San Lorenzo in Central America after Arnold won us an essay contest. And I say "repeated history" because, much like how he saved our neighborhood, Arnold accomplished another important mission and had succeeded because he had help from me: he discovered that his absent parents were not dead, but rather they disappeared in San Lorenzo years ago because they were being held prisoner by an evil river pirate named La Sombra.

Anyway, I won't go into all of the details of the adventure we took with our class in San Lorenzo, but in the end, Arnold did successfully find his parents and put a stop to La Sombra's evil deeds, and he had a lot of help from yours truly. Before we had to go home, he took me aside to talk to me alone. before and during our conversation, I was still putting up my front and still denying that I loved him to protect myself for fear that he would reject me, especially since we were alone at long last, and I figured he wanted to talk to me about my confession again. He admitted that he was grateful for all my help, but never in my wildest dreams did I think that he would actually confess right then and there that he felt the same way about me!

When I heard those words, I didn't know what to think. I felt a mixture of happiness and denial, especially when he insisted that he was telling the truth and would prove it. I didn't think he could prove it, but I was proven wrong _when he planted his lips right on mine!_

Arnold was kissing me! My football-headed love god, my beloved Arnold, was _kissing_ me, and with his lips right on my own lips!

Initially, I was trembling, but I quickly relaxed and reciprocated the kiss, feeling butterflies forming in my stomach. I decided to take advantage of this moment and closed my eyes, placing my hands around his neck to bring him closer to me.

_Down on Dream Street  
When I close my eyes  
There's angels all around  
(Singing a love song)_

Unfortunately, Gerald interrupted us, and we were too embarrassed to explain. We gave a ridiculous excuse though I don't think he bought it.

When we finally returned from San Lorenzo, Arnold immediately started spending time with his parents, and for several days, we didn't speak to each other at all. Though I figured he wanted to spend so much time with his parents, I couldn't help but take it as a sign of rejection, that Arnold wanted to take back what _he_ said and only kissed me because he was grateful for helping him with everything, and that _his_ confession was in "the heat of the moment," though it was for real this time.

Wouldn't you bet how surprised I was when he showed up at my house over a week later!

Again, I won't go into all the details, but we ended up talking outside on my front steps, and I accepted his invite to a movie, and before I could even think about it, Arnold leaned over to me _and kissed me right on the lips!_ Like our kiss in the jungle, it was brief but sweet, and I trembled at first, but quickly returned it.

The moment we finished, we turned away from each other. I think he was trying to stay cool, and I know was showing more clearly how excited I was. I clenched my hands into fists and held them to my chest and shook them in an excited manner, and my lip was trembling from joy. I was just about ready to cry.

Arnold…_kissed me._ He kissed me…_again!_ My beloved football head kissed me right on the lips _again_, and on _his own terms!_ That finally convinced that he told the truth in San Lorenzo, and that he really did feel the same way about me.

I slapped myself afterwards to make sure I wasn't dreaming, which surprised Arnold, but it wasn't long before we left the stoop and started walking down the street together, holding hands like a real boyfriend and girlfriend.

It was another moment when things between Arnold and I were never the same again.

_You know it happens every time (Ahh ahh ahh ahh)  
When I see you (Ahh ahh ahh ahh)  
Oh, it happens every time (Ahh ahh ahh ahh)  
Ooh-ooh-ooh…oh-oh-oh (Ahh ahh ahh ahh)_

So after mending things on my front step, Arnold and officially I began dating, though we initially kept our new-found relationship low key at school. But the fact that my unrequited love for Arnold was finally reciprocated by him brought me more happiness than I ever felt in my life!

Since we got together, I started opening up more about myself and my family, and Arnold continued to listen to me and give me advice, which I took. Arnold even once told me that he knew that I put up a hostile front to protect myself, and while it was not the best method, he understood why I used it. He said that using this method would actually make people walk all over me (which I wanted to avoid) and give them the power to control me, and it was as if I was letting them not allow me to be myself. As much as I wanted to be nice, I was afraid that people wouldn't accept me for it or just take advantage of me, which I see in regards to how Lila always acts. But Arnold encouraged me that there was nothing wrong with being myself. Being nice didn't mean being weak or a pushover, and it also didn't automatically mean I had to act exactly like Lila or even Olga. (I sure learned my lesson when I thought acting more like Lila was the only way to get Arnold to like me in return!) I could still stand up to people, be assertive and even aggressive if the occasion called for it. Having these flaws was just part of who I was, but it didn't mean that I was just a cold and heartless person.

Because of Arnold's help, I gradually started shedding my defenses and coming out my shell, even when we were around the other kids. Though I was deathly afraid of them discovering the truth about Arnold and I, he told me that he was a little afraid as well, but that we shouldn't let what the others say or think bother us. The only important thing that mattered is how we thought and felt, and they had no right to control us or tell us what to do.

Well, I can honestly say that I never heard better words of encouragement from my beloved!

_It happens every time when I see you  
It happens every time when I think of you  
It happens every time  
Oh, it's magic when we meet  
Baby, down on Dream Street_

We once had an encounter where Rhonda, Sid, Stinky, and Harold (and these four were the ones who first noticed and teased me about my crush in preschool) started laughing at us and pointing figures because they saw us together. I knew they clearly thought we were wrong for each other, especially Rhonda after she paired us together with her old origami marriage predictor. I did get a little defensive myself to them, but Arnold helped me to avoid handling the situation with violence. He just stood up to them and told them to leave us alone if they couldn't accept the two of us together.

Let me tell you, that put a shock on their faces, as Arnold had never been that bold to them before, especially about me!

But I knew that Arnold once stood up for me against Big Patty once, and that he believed I was a good person despite my rough exterior. Even after all I had done to him in the past, he never stopped caring about me or believing that I was good and not bad like everyone assumed. Though I had denied the truth about myself to him before my confession, I felt that my love for him strengthened more than before, because it was like he _could_ see me for who I really was, and that he even accepted me for both ways on what made me who I am: my kind, caring, romantic side, and my fiery, aggressive, sarcastic side.

Moving on, now that we're together, my love for Arnold has grown even stronger. We do get very affectionate when we're alone and yes, that means we still hug and kiss. And I only feel happiness when we do because it's not just that I love Arnold and I know my love for him will never change: it's that I'm his _girlfriend_, and that he loves me just as much as I love him.

I hope that our relationship will last a long time. Even if we do break up, I still will never change my mind about him. But Arnold says we should just enjoy what we have now and not think about the bad and good possibilities of the future.

How is it he always knows the right thing to say, even to me?

Well, what can I say? Arnold and I love each other, and that's all that matters now. And as long as we're together, I have a feeling I will continue being happy for a long time, I really do…

_It happens every time…(Baby, oh, oh)  
It happens every time  
Oh, it's magic when we meet  
Down on Dream Street_


End file.
